Each state of the United States has an official website with election results, both for the current election and for historical elections; they are listed here. Many counties also have their own official election results pages, which are not listed here.

It is rare for a state to have a complete run of historical election records online; many of the official documents are only available in paper format, especially for years prior to 1990. Previous studies of election results data have noted that official records at the county level have been routinely archived, forgotten, or discarded.The Record of American Democracy, 1984–1990, Gary King; Bradley Palmquist; Greg Adams; Micah Altman; Kenneth Benoit; Claudine Gay; Jeffrey B. Lewis; Russ Mayer; and Eric Reinhardt. 1997. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA [producer], Ann Arbor, MI: ICPSR [distributor].

Official results may be in PDF, Excel, CSV, HTML, Election Markup Language, or plain text formats, and may be scans of the original paper documents. Not everything here is easily machine readable for further processing. There are a number of sources for this data where the original source documents have been keyed in and checked and turned into machine readable databases.US Election Atlas, e.g.

A second table below illustrates with some examples of formats.

State Office Election URL Results United States Federal Election Commission https://www.fec.gov/introduction-campaign-finance/election-and-voting-information/1982–2010"Federal Elections", Federal Election Commission; published every 2 years since 1982. Alabama Secretary of State of Alabama https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/voter/election-informationLive - 2000–2012 1992–2012 1976–2000Historical Election Results, Secretary of State of Alabama Alaska Alaska Division of Elections http://www.elections.alaska.gov/ 1960–2012 Arizona Arizona Secretary of State https://web.archive.org/web/20100716003728/https://www.azsos.gov/election/ 1974–2012 Arkansas Secretary of State of Arkansas https://www.sos.arkansas.gov/elections/Pages/default.aspx 1976–2012 California California Secretary of State http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ 1990–2012 1995–2011 1849–2012"Inventory of the Elections Division", California State Archives. Paper records only Colorado Secretary of State of Colorado http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/ 1996–2012 Connecticut Secretary of the State of Connecticut 2008–2012 1998–2007 1922–2012 (PDF) Delaware Delaware Commissioner of Elections http://elections.delaware.gov/ 1970–2012 1940–1952 (PDF) Voting Statistics, Elections of 1940–1952 incl. District of Columbia District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics http://www.dcboee.org 1992–2012"Election Results", District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics Florida Florida Division of Elections https://web.archive.org/web/20090417203023/http://election.dos.state.fl.us/ 1978–2012 Georgia Georgia Secretary of State http://www.sos.ga.gov/elections/ 1988–2012 Hawaii State of Hawaii Office of Elections http://hawaii.gov/elections/ 1992–2012 Idaho Idaho Secretary of State https://web.archive.org/web/20120213050000/http://www.sos.idaho.gov/elect/eleindex.htm 1990–2012 Illinois Illinois State Board of Elections https://web.archive.org/web/20070212042840/http://www.elections.il.gov/ 1998–2012 Indiana Secretary of State of Indiana http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/index.htm 2001–2012 Iowa Iowa Secretary of State http://sos.iowa.gov/ 1996–2012 1936–1990 Kansas Kansas Secretary of State http://www.kssos.org/elections/elections.html 1980–2012 Kentucky Kentucky State Board of Elections http://elect.ky.gov/Pages/default.aspx 1973–2012 Louisiana Louisiana Secretary of State http://www.sos.la.gov/ 1982–2012 Maine Secretary of State of Maine http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/ 1990–2012 Maryland Maryland State Board of Elections http://www.elections.state.md.us/ 1986–2012 Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/ 2000–2012 Michigan Michigan Secretary of State http://www.michigan.gov/elections 1996–2012 1836–1904 Michigan Manual, 1906, pg. 392 and following Minnesota Minnesota Secretary of State http://www.sos.state.mn.us/index.aspx?page=4 1998–2012 1857–2011 (PDF) Mississippi Mississippi Secretary of State https://web.archive.org/web/20110428224147/http://www.sos.ms.gov/elections.aspx 2003–2010 2011–2012 Missouri Missouri Secretary of State http://www.sos.mo.gov/elections/ 2002–2012 Montana Montana Secretary of State http://sos.mt.gov/elections/index.asp 1992–2012 Nebraska Nebraska Secretary of State http://www.sos.ne.gov/dyindex.html 2000–2012 New Hampshire New Hampshire Secretary of State http://sos.nh.gov/Elections.aspx 1998–2012 New Jersey New Jersey Secretary of State http://njelections.org 1989–2012 1924–2012 (PDF) New Mexico New Mexico Secretary of State http://www.sos.state.nm.us 1994–2012 New York New York State Board of Elections https://web.archive.org/web/20120107201434/http://www.elections.ny.gov/ 1994–2012 North Carolina North Carolina State Board of Elections http://www.ncsbe.gov/ 1992–2012 1948–1968 North Dakota North Dakota Secretary of State http://www.nd.gov/sos/electvote/ 1889–2012 (yes 1889) Ohio Ohio Secretary of State http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/elections.aspx 1940–2012 Oklahoma Oklahoma State Election Board http://www.ok.gov/elections/index.html 2004–2012 Oregon Oregon State Elections Division http://sos.oregon.gov/ 1988 - present Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Department of State http://www.electionreturns.state.pa.us/ 2000–2012 Rhode Island Rhode Island Secretary of State http://sos.ri.gov/elections/ 1976–2010 South Carolina South Carolina State Election Commission http://www.scvotes.org/ 1996–2012 South Dakota South Dakota Secretary of State http://sdsos.gov/Elections/Default.aspx 1889–2012 Tennessee Tennessee Secretary of State http://www.tn.gov/sos/election/index.htm 1998–2012 Texas Texas Secretary of State http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/index.shtml 1992–2012 Utah Utah Lieutenant Governor http://elections.utah.gov/ Live 2012 1960–2012 Vermont Vermont Secretary of State https://web.archive.org/web/20140210125755/http://vermont-elections.org/ Live 2012 1974–2012 Virginia Virginia State Board of Elections https://web.archive.org/web/20080516040912/http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/ 1984–2012 Washington Washington Secretary of State http://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/ 1900–2012 West Virginia West Virginia Secretary of State http://www.sos.wv.gov/elections/Pages/default.aspx 1950–2012 Wisconsin Wisconsin Secretary of State http://gab.wi.gov/elections-voting 2010–2012 2000–2009 Wyoming Wyoming Secretary of State http://soswy.state.wy.us/Elections/Elections.aspx 1996–2012

Data formats

This table shows the variety of formats encountered when looking at election data. It aims, at the minimum, to show the easiest to process and the hardest to process examples from an election in each state. State Election Data URL Comments Alabama 1992 General Election results, County level Excel 2010 Certified General Election Results, complete with write-in appendix PDF; parts scanned with hand written corrections Alaska 1960 General Election PDF, scanned from typewritten manuscript 2008 General Election HTML, "GEMS Election Results" format Arizona 1974 General Election Canvass PDF, scanned from nth generation copy, italic font 2010 General Election, unofficial results Web-based reporting system from Clarity; detail reports in XML, TXT, Excel Arkansas 1976 Election Results PDF, scanned, some pages upside down 2006 Election Results Publication Excel California 1990 Statement of the Vote PDF, scanned, fonts uneven/broken 2010 Statement of the Vote PDF from digital original 2012 election results for news media Election Markup Language format Election Night Data Feed guide, version 6.0, California Secretary of State Colorado 2010 Abstract of Votes Cast PDF from digital original Utah 2010 General Election Excel

References